The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-003534 on Jan. 12, 2000 including the specification, drawings and abstract is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an apparatus and method for manufacturing a solid polymer film with a catalyst deposited thereon.
2. Description of Related Art
An apparatus for manufacturing a solid polymer film with a catalyst deposited thereon which joins solid polymer film and catalyst carrier film by means of a hot press and then separates the film therefrom has been proposed (e.g. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 10-6457). This apparatus joins a solid polymer film with catalyst carrier films by directly hot pressing them while the solid polymer film is sandwiched between the catalyst carrier films, and then separates each film of the catalyst carrier films from the thus obtained solid polymer film with a catalyst deposited thereon at an angle of substantially 90 degrees with respect thereto. Note that the solid polymer film with a catalyst deposited thereon manufactured in this way is used as an electrolyte (solid polymer film) and catalyst electrode (catalyst layer) used in a solid polymer fuel cell.
However, with the aforementioned apparatus there are cases in which the catalyst may not transfer well to the solid polymer film. The solid polymer film and the catalyst are joined by hot pressing, but the binding strength therebetween is weak. As a result the catalyst may separate from the solid polymer film in some areas when the film is separated from the solid polymer film.
An object of the invention is to manufacture a solid polymer film with a catalyst sufficiently deposited thereon by sufficiently transferring a catalyst to a polymer film.
In order to achieve the foregoing objective, a first aspect of an apparatus of the invention for manufacturing a solid polymer film with a catalyst deposited thereon is provided with a heater for preheating the solid polymer film, a hot press machine for forming a joined member by heating and pressing together at least one catalyst carrier substrate carrying a catalyst on one side of a transfer substrate and a preheated solid polymer film, and a separating machine for separating the transferred substrate from the joined member.
Preheating the solid polymer film leads to an increase in bond strength between the solid polymer film and the catalyst, as well as prevents the catalyst from separating from the solid polymer film during the separation process of the transfer substrate.
In addition to the foregoing aspect, the catalyst carrier substrate may also be cooled prior to being contacted with the solid polymer film. This enables even better transfer of the catalyst to the solid polymer film.
Also in the foregoing aspect, a cooling machine for cooling the joined member may be provided. This makes it possible to further inhibit separation of the catalyst from the solid polymer film during the transfer substrate separation process.
Further, in the foregoing aspect, the heater and the hot press machine may be formed integrated. This enables the number of construction parts of the apparatus to be reduced, as well as simplifies the construction.
The apparatus and method according to the foregoing aspect enable the manufacture of a solid polymer film with a catalyst sufficiently deposited thereon with little catalyst separation.